My first Blyton for older children

The very first Enid Blyton book for older children I read was the ragamuffin mystery. I had run out of faraway tree, wishing chair and brer rabbit books by Blyton (for younger children). But I didn't really understand the ragamuffin mystery and kept taking long breaks from it. But I did eventually read it. I had no idea it was the last one in a series of six books.

Novels with crappy endings

Just finished this novel last night. Why are so many authors so keen on having a crappy ending where all the good guys die and the bad guys triumph?? It just completely puts me of reading any more books by that author. It spoils the whole story and I feel cheated. Don't think be buying any more of his books. I felt the same way after watching "Eden Lake".

It was great -- until the very end.

I won't mention the name of the book just in case anyone at any point wants to read it.

Went for a walk

Been for a walk, looking for this footpath as indicated on my mobile, and something flew down my throat! The Goddess of fate's punishment for not wearing a face mask (the corona virus is still around). And I never did find the footpath.

Absolute wealth or relative wealth

Jus' thinking. Which would people prefer:

a) To get paid £100,000 a year for a specific job whilst everyone else earned £50,000 a year.

b) To get paid £200,000 a year for a specific job whilst everyone else earned £400,000 a year.

I think people would tend to say "b", but in reality would feel happier with "a".

To be better off than others gives people satisfaction, but to earn less than everyone else is not good for one's self esteem. Of course, ideally, we ought to be solely interested in our absolute wealth.

Free Will

What the heck do people mean when they claim we don't have free will? That our consciousness doesn't actually do anything? Look, we are directly acquainted with our ability to move our bodies, say what we think, think what we will, etc. It's sheer lunacy to suppose we don't have free will in this sense. I know that many scientists say we don't, but many of them are the same people who assert animals are not conscious. People need to get real, stop believing the most transparent falsehoods just because someone in authority says it. Exercise a bit of common sense.

Or some might concede our consciousness is causal, but say this doesn't amount to free will. We do what we do because of what we are, and all that malarkey. This seems to me to amount to little more than I do what I do because of my essence. Well gosh, I'm a happless puppet of my essence...  Meaningless nonsense, a desperate attempt to rescue this "no free will" claim.

For those interested, on my other blog I have written a comprehensive essay on this whole issue. Possibly my best ever blog post, although unfortunately it hasn't garnered much interest, nor comprehension. Go here.

Back to 1965

Imagine you went back to 1965, met someone, and then brought them back to 2020. Would they be surprised at the progress of technology? Not as technologically advanced as they might have imagined, or vice versa? Would they be surprised at anything else?

I think I preferred 1965. The world was closer, more community spirit. Not so overcrowded. We are now more estranged from each other. But the modern world does have the net.

Remote Learning

According to this article not everyone hates remote learning. I emphatically don't.  To tell the truth, the vast majority of my knowledge comes from reading books. With reading you can reread something if you don't understand it. Have music on in background. Have breaks whenever you like.  But listening to people requires constant attention, and most stuff taught at school was utterly dreary.  This made it beyond my ability to pay attention and I just switched off and started daydreaming. Indeed, most days, before the age of around 13 years old, I literally learnt nothing from one day to the next. This partially explains my perplexity when people bang on about how important school is.

I really hated school.  I resent all my childhood being wasted by being forced to go there.  

Far Cry 5

I don't really like modern computer games but bought Far Cry 5 for £12.50 yesterday. Played the first Far Cry game, which is excellent. Played maybe round a third of Far Cry 3 before my hard drive was formatted. No other Far Cry game. Far Cry 3 was OK ish.. but scarcely compares to Far Cry 1.  The problem with Far Cry 3 was all the crafting and timed stuff you were obliged to do, and having to go into shops to buy weapons, which all very much detracted from the experience. So not sure if I should play Far Cry 3 all the way through. So thought I might as well play Far Cry 5 to see if it's any better. Perhaps it will be as good as the first Far Cry!


My PC is 7.5 years old and never been upgraded, but it seems it can still run it. So that's the good news. Bad news is that the game starts very dark and people shooting at me. It would have been vastly better to start off in bright daylight in a picturesque idyllic tropical paradise as in Far Cry 1 with no enemies in sight. Just to soak in the scenery and get used to the controls etc. Why must we start off in the dark not being able to see anything! Do they want to put off people playing the game after the first 5 minutes?

Also, I have no idea what I'm doing, it all seems horrendously complex. To be fair I felt the same way about Far Cry 3 at first, but as I persevered it all became much clearer.

The map doesn't appear though when I press "M". It just gives me the journal. The "J" and "I" buttons also both give me the journal, and yes they are mapped correctly in the options. Perhaps I pick up the map a little way into the game? At the moment I haven't a clue where to go.

Why the heck can't they make a Far Cry game where the main character travels back in time to the age of the dinosaurs? Of course, he (or she) would have plenty of weapons. As well as dinosaurs like the T rex etc, perhaps there might be super intelligent dinosaurs of around our size with ray guns. Anyway, that would be an absolute blast. I'm pretty sure it'd be vastly more popular than than this Far Cry 5 game.

Anyway, for the time being, I'll persevere with Far Cry 5. Will update when appropriate.

Update:  A few hours later.

Been playing a litle bit more.  Now at last I'm seeing the environment in daylight.  However, it's nowhere near as beautiful as Far Cry or Far Cry 3.  The colours look washed out, insipid.  Even though only £12.50 I think this is probably a waste of money.  Why the heck aren't demos available for most computer games??


Update 13/06/20 I soon gave up on it. I just couldn't be bothered playing. Now I've bought the remake of Resident Evil 3 and see what that's like.

Pupil Dilation Exams

Avoid pupil dilation exams like the plague. 15 months later I'm still suffering from this occasional bright circle lasting 5-10 mins in the centre of my left eye vision. I was promised the procedure is completely harmless.

The older I get the more and more I realise that many so-called "experts" haven't got a freaking clue. Ophthalmologists in particular don't appear to have a scooby.

To infer the existence of others

One thing that people should be aware of is that if all our behaviour is entirely caused by neurons firing with our actual consciousness itself having no causal input, then we could not infer that others are conscious.